GWB Allies Decklist
March 22, 2010 | Posted by Dee
When Worldwake was released, I wondered if allies could be a viable contender in Standard. I’m a big fan of rogue decks and Worldwake had new allies that seemed powerful enough to make the archetype good.
For example, Hada Freeblade is an aggressive one-drop that gives the deck explosive starts. Harabaz Druid provides mana acceleration and fixing. Acceleration allows you to play multiple two-drops or a four-drop on turn three and fixing helps a lot if you want to play more than two colors.
I searched through the MTGO tournament results and I was happy to find a couple ally decks doing well.
Here is one of them, a green/white/black decklist, that features Bala Gad Thief. This list went 3-1 in a Standard Daily on March 16.
| GWB Allies | |||||||||||
Creatures (34)
Spells (2) | Lands (24)
Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
Deck Analysis
Many of the ally decks on MTGO don’t splash for black but I like Bala Ged Thief because it’s one of the few ally cards that provides card advantage.
Also, Black gives the deck some flexibility with Maelstrom Pulse. However, you don’t want to play too many of them since you need a critical mass of allies to make the deck work.
Noble Hierarch is an interesting addition. It gives Ranger of Eos more than four targets. Exalted can be cruical since there are a lot of big creatures in Standard like Baneslayer Angel and Knight of the Reliquary. Giving a 5/5 Oran-Rief Survivalist exalted is a great thing when you’re facing down a 5/5 first striking angel.
Join the Ranks is missing but Ranger of Eos seems better with all the board sweepers in the format (Day of Judgment, Martial Coup, and Earthquake).
Kabira Evangel seems like he is in every ally deck and for good reason. Ally decks can’t afford to play a lot of removal so they need a way to break through creature stalemates. Kabira Evangel’s ability can make your army unblockable so that it can deal the finishing blow.
Talus Paladin is only a 3-of. It’s great for racing creature decks but it’s mediocre against decks with a lot of removal.
Tectonic Edge gives the deck something to do if it floods out but it might be better to play Stirring Wildwood instead.
Moving to the sideboard, Dauntless Escort is a must since mass removal is so good against this 34 creature deck. Duress is also helpful to take out mass removal before your opponent can use it.
Ondu Cleric and the 4th Talus Paladin are great against red burn decks.
Path to Exile can come in to stop haste creatures and big blockers.
And Qasali Pridemage stops cards like Howling Mine, Journey to Nowhere, and Oblivion Ring. The green/white creature is especially strong against Oblivion Ring. If the enchantment has exiled an ally, when you destroy it, you get to trigger your allies again.
Check out the following eBay links for low prices on the expensive cards in this deck.
Rares
Creatures (one, two, and three drops)
- Noble Hierarch
(3 main deck)
- Harabaz Druid
(4 main)
- Kabira Evangel
(4 main)
- Dauntless Escort
(3 sideboard)
Creatures (Four drops)
- Bala Ged Thief
(4 main)
- Ranger of Eos
(4 main)
- Talus Paladin
(3 main, 1 sideboard)
Spells
- Maelstrom Pulse
(2 main)
Lands
- Sunpetal Grove
(4 main)
- Verdant Catacombs
(2 main)
- Marsh Flats
(4 main)
Uncommons
- Path to Exile
(3 sideboard)
3 Responses to “GWB Allies Decklist”
-
Subscription Options
-
Popular MTG Cards on eBay
-
Categories
I’ve been messing around with a similar idea (same colors) but haven’t quite gotten there yet, nor played any real games except against myself. Sad, I know. My thoughts were to have escorts, mark of asylum, duress main, with join the ranks over ranger (with the idea that you didn’t need to refill your grip if you were using the bala ged thief, duress, escorts, and marks to protect your board presence). I completely forgot about pulse, and had in its place a 2 of slot for Oblivion Ring. I noticed that later turns (goldfishing only, so conclusion is suspect) that harabaz druids generated ridiculous mana. I wonder if we can find a slot for an x spell or 2?
I think X-spells could be good. But just make sure you have a lot of allies. Most winning ally decks I’ve seen only have a few non-ally cards. I wouldn’t go below 8 non-ally cards. By the way, I don’t really count Ranger of Eos as a non-ally because he fetches allies.
Ive won 3/4 fnm tourmants and ive been using a red/green ally deck. The deck consist of just the regular allys given in the deck for zendikar and ive just added more of them and burns/giant growths. i would advise going red/green, i thinks its the best choice